A Week in Paradise {part 1}

Last week, Jason and I spent 7 days with our best friends in paradise. We returned to the resort where we spent our honeymoon, the El Dorado Royale in Riviera Maya. We were a little apprehensive to return to the same resort because we weren't sure we could duplicate the amazingness of our honeymoon but after looking at pretty much every resort in Mexico, we decided there was no where else we wanted go. This trip, while different than the first, was equally as amazing. The resort was just as beautiful and fantastic as we remembered and having a week in the sun with close friends was basically the best possible way to spend the beginning of this new year.

The trip kicked off last Sunday, with a morning flight. I was majorly stressed about leaving Kenley for a full week with limited communication and some tears were definitely shed but once we got to the airport I was excited and ready for a week away with my man. We arrived in Cancun around 2pm and the second we were out of customs we grabbed a "cerveza" while waiting for our shuttle.

Once we made it to the resort we checked in to our beautiful rooms, promptly put on our swimsuits, had lunch at the seaside grill, took a quick dip in the pool and explored the resort.


I am realizing as I write out a day-by-day recap of our trip that we, for the most part, had the same routine each day - so I'm going to recap our daily routine today and then break down our fun nights and amazing dinners tomorrow!

Our days always started somewhere between 8am and 10am. Sometimes we were all up-and-at-em for breakfast together, sometimes we had breakfast as couples and sometimes I got up early to enjoy coffee on the beach on my own. All of our breakfasts were either at La Isla which was right off the pool or Cocotal which had a bomb buffet.

After breakfast we set up shop at the pool for the morning. Our pool time consisted of laying by pool, laying in the pool, sitting at the pool bar, and drinking cocktails! Lots and lots of cocktails!



We very quickly made friends with the "entertainment staff". These boys were responsible for hanging by the pool. talking to the guests and running the activities. This worked out great because my darling husband is incapable of sitting still so he always had some sort of game to play (volleyball, water polo, water aerobics, ping pong & beach volleyball). We ended up absolutely loving these guys by the end of the week and I'm pretty confident they loved us back. I was particularly attached to the adorable 20 year old boy from Croatia named Tomic who we called Wally because he looks like a young version of a former Timberwolves basketball player.

After our morning at the pool, we'd head to lunch at either the Pizzeria Cabana, The Health Bar or the last two days they did a cookout right by the pool with an amazing buffet.

After lunch we'd head to the beach where we'd nap (or I should say, I would nap), go for a walk or just hang out by the ocean.

We'd finish up the afternoon back at the pool for a bit (so Jason could play water polo - seriously, cannot sit still) and then around 4ish would head back to our rooms to get ready. Getting ready usually consisted of a a nice soak in the jacuzzi, an order or room service chips & guac, lounging on the patio and then eventually actually getting ready for the evening - which really just meant the boys would drink beers on the patio while the girls primped.

What happened after the primping is coming up tomorrow!